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Monthly Archives: December 2013

The Fitbit iPhone app received a notable update today that brings basic tracking features directly to the iPhone 5S without the need of one of Fitbit’s tracking watches.

Version 2.1 of the app introduces the new “MobileTrack” feature, which takes advantage of Apple’s new M7 motion co-processor, provides some of FitBit’s basic activity tracking features right on the device.

The app will track usage data from your iPhone 5S for analysis

This means, however, that the update is only available to iPhone 5S users. They will also be able to try basic features of the app before choosing whether to invest in Fitbit’s hardware.

The app has also welcomed a number of other new features, including redesigned silent alarms, the ability to a set a custom water goal, and a revamped profile editor, tracker settings, and sign-up screen.

Worried that you might be piling on the pounds a bit too much over Christmas? Dreading the thought of the new year’s resolutions? Well help could be at hand from the latest household connected device.

Say hello to the catchily-named Pyle Bluetooth Fitness Scale. Available now for $59.99 in black, green, orange, pink, or grey, these bathroom scales will link to your smartphone or tablet using Bluetooth. The scales will send information about your weight, body fat percentage, muscle mass and bone mass to your device, which will use this information to tailor workouts accordingly.

The scales will send information to your smartphone or connected device

Pyle (who normally specialise in audio technology, but have recently launched the Pyle Health range) has a Bluetooth-ready app ready to roll which allows users to create profiles and chart their progress. You can even share your results via Twitter or Facebook if you so please.

Focus, a newly formed creative start-up, has announced the release of TRAINR, its new app that is aiming to put the power of a personal trainer onto your wrist.

Available now for the Samsung Galaxy Gear and other compatible smartphones, TRAINR is the first fitness app that provides custom training programs while automatically identifying exercises, tracking repetitions, sets and rest periods.

The app works with your wearable device to devise appropriate workouts

With TRAINR, the combination of a wearable device and smartphone evolves into a powerful fitness-training tool, accessible anytime and anywhere, explaining how to train to achieve goals.

London has been greatly troubled recently by a number of tragic cyclist accidents resulting in several fatalities, an occurrence which has seemingly grown in the dark winter months. It seems paramount that cyclists need to do their absolute utmost to ensure being seen, and thus being safe.

This is why the new cycling gloves from Zackees could prove to be a life-saving invention. Created by former Google software engineer Zach Vorhies, these gloves do away with traditional hand signals by instead including illuminated turn signals inside.

The gloves provide extra lighting and lets motorists around you know your intentions

Each glove has an array of LEDs embedded in its back, which are powered by two onboard coin cell batteries. Those LEDs form a blinking directional arrow, and are activated simply by touching a pair of metal contacts together – one on the inside of the glove’s thumb, and one on the inside of its index finger.

Getting yourself motivated for winter runs is never easy, especially if you’re taking it up for a new year’s fitness regime. However, this might all be about to change, thanks to the Jantastic running challenge.

The Jantastic running challenge is looking to inspire all runners

Created by the organisers of running podcast Marathon Talk and backed by English Athletics and Adidas, Jantastic is a free running challenge which looks to inspire all ages and abilities to start or continue running in 2014. Registration is now open, and over 5,000 people have already signed up. In 2013, the challenge saw more than 125,000 runs and 600,000 miles logged, with a bigger total targeted for 2014.

Launching with a new website www.jantastic.me, the challenge will see the creation of an online running community which organisers hope will help get people started and running more and faster through the difficult winter months between January and March.

With the smartwatch market becoming ever more crowded, manufacturers are looking to introduce new and innovative features in order to tempt consumers. A new smartwatch released this week by Santa Clara-based firm Magellen, the Echo, promises to solve one of the biggest problem users encounter when running with a smartphone – viewing and controlling fitness apps while the phone is tucked away.

Echo streams data and controls from your smartphone to your wrist, allowing users to see their distance, pace, and heart rate from fitness apps in realtime.

The Echo is available in a variety of colours, and can also serve as an everyday watch

The device connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth Smart and allows users to control fitness applications through four customizable buttons on its side. However, the obvious downside of this is that, you need to have your phone on you while running to get the most out of the device, unlike standalone fitness watches such as the Adidas miCoach.

The running shoe market has changed so much in the last decade that it would properly be mind-blowing for runners from twenty or thirty years ago to see how far it have developed. But how will shoes evolve and change in the future?

At this week’s Wearable Futures conference, London designer and researcher Shamees Aden demonstrated a concept shoe which shows how he sees the future developing. The shoes, which Aden is developing with University of Southern Denmark professor Martin Hanczyc, are 3D printed from protocells, a synthetic biological material that can repair itself overnight.

Coming to your feet in the near future?

The shoes’ unique construction allows them to be 3D printed to the exact size of the user’s foot, so they would fit like a second skin. While running, the shoes would react to pressure and movement, providing extra cushioning when needed. Continue reading →

Getting people involved in exercise is always a challenge, and the NHS has tried a wide variety of tactics to try and get people to be more active. Now they are embracing gamification through the release of a new app, The Walk.

Developed with app-maker Six to Start, who previously made the excellent Zombies, Run!, The Walk encourages players to walk in order to progress through a story and unlock audio clips.

The Walk places characters in an Britain ravaged by a mysterious event

Described as a mix of North By Northwest and The 39 Steps, the game begins with a fictional explosion at Inverness station which knocks out transport and communications networks across the country.

Players then assume the role of a character called Walker, who has to carry a mysterious package the length of the country.

Today’s second piece of Nike news concerns wearable technology – as following the release of the Nike+Sportwatch and Fuelband SE smartwatch in 2013, it seems that the company is gearing up to launch an entirely new smartwatch early next year to compete with Adidas’ MiCoach device.

Occasionally-reliable electronics news site DigiTimes, citing sources along the supply chains in Taiwan, is reporting that early production runs on the wearable computing solution are already taking place at assembly plants run by EMS firm Flextronics International.

Nike’s recent FuelBand SE was well-received – could we be seeing the next generation soon?

This could mean that a Nike smartwatch could be set to go on to be released in the first half of 2014, with early prototypes possibly making an appearance at CES in January or even Mobile World Congress in February in Barcelona.